An effort to create a Hillsboro library subdistrict as part of the Jefferson County Library system has been postponed while a committee of library proponents and county government work to determine the timing of the election, its cost and who will pay for it.
Volunteers gathered enough signatures on a petition calling for an election and had planned to ask the Jefferson County Council to sign off on an Aug. 8 ballot measure, facing a May 30 deadline to get it on the ballot.
But on Monday, Karen Huskey, chairwoman of the approximately 15-member library committee, said the committee has decided not to seek approval from the council at this time.
“The committee has asked for the item to be pulled from the agenda of the (May 9 council) meeting,” she said. “We’ll ask to have the petition applied to a different election.”
The committee is seeking a library subdistrict to serve Hillsboro R-3 School District residents. The ballot measure would have called for a property tax of 28 cents per $100 assessed valuation to provide funding, the same tax that is being charged to residents in the Northwest R-1, Fox C-6 and Windsor C-1 districts for library services.
The quest for a Hillsboro library has gone to voters three times before, failing twice in 2000 and again in 2012. Another effort in 2014 failed to get enough signatures on the petition.
This time around, the committee easily gathered 931 signatures on a petition and the County Clerk’s Office verified 919 of those and turned the petition over to the County Council on April 19.
Based on the November 2016 gubernatorial election, only 534 signatures of registered voters were required, County Clerk Randy Holman said.
Pam Klipsch, Jefferson County Library director, said she believes the committee will persevere in its effort for a Hillsboro library.
“They’re not giving up on this issue. They realize there are issues involved with an August election, so they are holding off,” she said.
Last week, there was disagreement over who would pay for putting the issue on the August ballot, which would require a special election and higher costs than a regularly scheduled election.
Huskey said she thought the County Council would pay for it out of county funds, while county counselor Tony Dorsett first said he thought the Jefferson County Library would pay, but then said it would fall to the committee.
Attorney Charles Wooten, who is working with the library committee, said because the committee and the county could not come to an agreement about which party would pay for the election, the committee decided to pull the petition from the council’s meeting agenda.
“We want a resolution to that issue before we put it on the ballot. We believe that a very reasonable interpretation of the state statute is that the county conducts and pays for the election,” he said.
Jefferson County Executive Ken Waller said Monday a special election might cost as much as $30,000 and the county would not pick up the cost.
“We don’t have an election in August. We only have an election in August (the primary) in even-numbered years,” he said. “We don’t have a problem having an election, but we’re not paying $30,000 to do it.”
He also said the county would not be responsible, anyway, to pay for the election.
“Any entity, whether it’s a fire district, water district or library district that wants to put something on the ballot has to pay to have something put on the ballot,” Waller said. “There is a cost to doing that.”
The next regular election will be held on April 3, 2018. Costs are lower then, because government boards across the county hold elections and share the cost when boundaries overlap.
Waller said if the library committee decides to hold the election next year, he would work with them on the cost of the election.
“We work with everybody. Sometimes we give them a break,” he said.
Wooten said the library committee will keep its goal in mind.
“The committee will fully work and cooperate with the county to make sure (the library subdistrict tax issue) is put before the voters,” he said. “This is a group of people who have worked very hard. Our group believes the library would be very beneficial – enriching – to people of the community, and we will make sure to get it on the ballot.”
The Roberts, Wooten and Zimmer Law Firm is working with the committee pro bono.
The Jefferson County Library currently is made up of two library subdistricts that follow school district boundaries. One takes in the Northwest R-1 School District and the other takes in the Fox C-6 and Windsor C-1 school districts.
The Hillsboro R-3 School District encompasses 106.17 square miles in central Jefferson County.